The copyright extension release thread (w/r/t EU copyright law)

(and sell them, obv)

This has me thinking about recording artists who in 1963 were already at zenith, or one of their zeniths. Jazz, mostly. Are we gonna see similar copyright-saving quickies for Coltrane etc?

LOL at someone using Disney to DEFEND copyright law. Disney, who made their bones on public domain works like Cinderella, Snow White, etc.

this is a completist's dream, if nothing else

also very interesting points re: unreleased stuff needing to be guarded even more securely, the stakes just went up

another random thought I have is that life plus 50 really screws people like Cobain, Joplin, etc (and their estates) - I mean, it's almost been 30 years since Cobain died!

A completists' dream is not having to pay for bootlegs. And this little release is a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of hours of leaked material.

I mean, it's almost been 30 years since Cobain died!

Er, check yr math.

why is that dumb when Disney has demonstrated that they will, almost literally, stop at nothing to get those copyrights extended?

Ismael said "Disney would have to create someone new." Which they do regularly. So where is the disincentive to create?

coincidentally, i am jamming angst in my pants and "mickey mouse" came on right as i opened this thread up again just now.

life plus 50 really screws people like Cobain, Joplin, etc (and their estates)

it's better than a flat 50 years!

haha whoops sorry Kurdt, how time flies (xps to j via c)

Almost 30 years since D Boon though

haha whoops sorry Kurdt, how time flies (xps to j via c)

i just had this brief flash of, "holy shit am i getting old!", followed quickly by, "waitaminute..."

i have a lot of conflicting opinions about copyright myself and i'm definitely not opposed to the artist retaining rights for at least their lifetime, but the sad reality of the music business is that we're mostly talking about protecting corporate interest here.

― moe handy, Tuesday, December 17, 2013 3:24 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea totally. what is the situation for most sound recordings? do the artists even own the copyright, or does the record company? or the song publisher? i took a copyright MOOC through harvard law and the lecture on copyright & music was absurdly complex. the professor created this flowchart that had arrows pointing everywhere with all sorts of conditionals

it depends on the deal, but iirc it is usually the record company that holds copyrights, resulting in things like Bowie doing that stock deal to buy his songs back, or the artists on Rough Trade having to go to a bankruptcy auction to bid on their own damn master recordings (I was telling Laurie that story last night cuz we were listening to Scrawl, who got totally fucked over by that)

ok, i found something similar to what the mooc professor showed us, this is not the same one though so it doesn't have the harvard berkman center approval

http://static.myce.com/images_posts/2010/08/Music-Licensing-Flowchart.jpg

I was always curious about Scrawl's situation. It was definitely frustrating not to be able to find those records, and sad because they really seemed to be on the verge of a higher profile.

xp

obv it varies from deal to deal but a lot of times when it comes to ancient contracts and artists who don't have a team of lawyers on retainer the deal doesn't even matter. the big three claim de facto ownership of almost everything ever released on any of the 1000s of label catalogs that they own. if you're an artist and you think otherwise, have fun getting their legal dept. to cough up any paperwork without a serious fight.

which isn't to say that they won't have to pay royalties to the artist based on whatever the contract stipulates but, again, good luck getting them to provide any kind of detailed accounting without a legal battle unless you're a big cheese.

i've worked in 3rd party reissue licensing for 10 years and i've never heard of any slightly obscure artist getting a check for anything other than songwriting royalties when their major label record is reissued. i'm sure they're still working off 40 year old advances/promo expenses/etc. that may or may not be bullshit.

and, of course, they may have sold off their songwriting for a, ahem, song back in the day anyways.

anyway, blah blah blah, same old story. obviously there are artists that are getting paid that are hurt by the old EU public domain laws, but imho this is way more about protecting the interests of the big 3 than anything else.

imho this is way more about protecting the interests of the big 3 than anything else.

ding ding ding

What's the story with Scrawl? I always liked that band.

Anyway, I am a person who makes a bunch of money from my parent's work (I own the rights, they're dead). I would probably be less lazy about doing my own stuff if I was "hungrier" or whatever.

re Scrawl: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/typicalgirls/2006-February/000746.html

Galaxie 500 had to buy their tapes back as well

Oh, thanks, sleeve. That's interesting. That Rough Trade bankruptcy really screwed a lot of good bands over.

buying back your master for basically the same amount as your advance doesn't sound so terrible.

Advances used to be unreasonably large, though

THREE masters xp

which is an even better deal obv

not really bringing that up in an "evil label" way, just as a comment on artists frequently not owning their own copyrights.

Looking forward to the Beatles songs going public domain in the year 2100. Can't wait, it's gonna be awesome.

OK this is interesting as well, somebody mentioned Funkytown on the itunes/Billboard thread and I went wiki-ng:

In 1976, an amendment was made to the Copyright Act that permits authors to terminate grants of copyright assignments and licenses that were made on or after January 1, 1978. Under Section 203 of the Copyright Act, artists may reclaim ownership of a work's copyright no earlier than 35 years after the grant was executed. However, artists may give notice of their intent to terminate as early as 25 years after the grant had been executed.[36] In 2006, Steven Greenberg became the first American songwriter to file "notice of termination" under this act, in regard to Funkytown and the album it is a part of.[37][38][39][40][41] Because the song was released in 1980, the earliest that Greenberg would actually have the copyright returned to him is in the year 2015. So far, Casablanca's successor (Universal Music Group) has had little to say on the matter. Their stance legally has been that the song was a "work for hire" which are not protected under the copyright amendment, with Greenberg playing the role of the employee. As the first major hit to be reviewed for termination, many artists across the country are eagerly awaiting the outcome.

Yeah, linked a thread for that near the top of this one.

The termination notices issue (w/r/t copyright, artist rights, etc. in the US)

ah, thanks, missed that

review of new Beatles release:

Beatles 'Bootleg' scraping bottom of barrel

Another end of the year, another set of these releases, covering 1964. Two today already from the Beach Boys vaults via iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id942040096

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/beach-boys-live-in-sacramento/id942017956

The first one is of more immediate interest being a collection of sessions and so forth.

Okay, Dylan is the next rumored one up:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/rare-dylan-recordings-set-for-release-in-copyright-extension-bid/

Key bits:

This year’s trawl is starting to shape up. Sony has told European retailers that it will release a nine-LP set of 1964 recordings by Mr. Dylan, possibly as early as next week. Only 1,000 copies will be available, but if past years are any guide, collectors who obtain copies are likely to make copies available online before the year is out.

A person close to the project, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, provided a track list that includes television performances at the CBC in Canada and on “The Steve Allen Show”; a tantalizing tape, accounting for nearly three LP sides, that Mr. Dylan recorded with the folksinger Eric Von Schmidt, at Von Schmidt’s home in Florida; and a disc of studio outtakes from the sessions for “Another Side of Bob Dylan,” with the first take of “It Ain’t Me Babe,” alternative versions of several other songs, and a 46-second pass at “Mr. Tambourine Man,” a song he would not complete until 1965.

Most of the set, however, is devoted to concert recordings, few of which have turned up on bootlegs in master quality versions. These include performances in London, Philadelphia, San Francisco and San Jose.

Meanwhile here's a random one just out -- a collection of 1964 cuts from a variety of British Invasion acts, but no American release:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/1964/id947866192

ah, those Eden Kane bootleggers will have to waive the idea.

We've had the Pink Floyd EP, but what else is coming out this year?

Probably not much.

I feel that Dylan 18cd set was another variation on this theme, still expensive but at least you get something for yr big bucks.

There will be some 1966 goodies I'm sure.

Bouncing off the Dylan thread, because I am confused:

I'm not sure about those EU laws, but over at expectingrain.com they're calling it "the Live 1966 Copyright Extension Collection" and I really can't think of other good reasons for this timely change in approach to the bootleg series

Huh. So have there been quiet live/archive releases of 1964, 1965, upcoming 1966 stuff from other acts of prominence? Stones were active by then, the Who, Kinks, etc., not to mention other American acts. It doesn't follow that all this Dylan stuff is being released strictly to get around the change in copyright status.

There was the Pink Floyd EP I mentioned just upthread.

I mean, why not a deluge? If they're also including live stuff, as they are with Dylan and did with Beach Boys and Beatles, clearly there is more. Why was that stuff not released? No Beatles live in 1965, et al. That is, there is obviously live 1965 Pink Floyd material. A lot of that stuff is going to be in that massive boxed set, sure, but didn't it miss the copyright cutoff?

Looks like this is now a thing again:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/03/mystery-of-rolling-stones-tracks-posted-briefly-on-youtube

Abkco did a similar thing a few years ago: it was mostly awful sounding mid-60s live stuff, plus a neat but hilarious Keef demo of "Dandelion" (he had the melody, but few words, so it's mostly him going "rarh rarh rarrrrrrrh rah rarrrrh" over and over).

Almost forgot that tis the season -- and looks like there's a new Beach Boys one en route:

o hai Generic Beach Boys 1970 Copyright Dump https://t.co/13Xo1osw5A cc @bourgwick

— Mike D's Leisure Suit from the "Hey Ladies" video (@scottythered) November 22, 2020

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-george-harrison-sessions-1097129/

AOTY - Beach Boys, "1970 Release"

Apparently, Lou Reed "I'm So Free - the RCA Demos" is out now on iTunes

Interesting, not seeing in the US store.

Unless they’ve dropped it already.

(I mean, deleted it. These days, dropped means excitedly released something but)

Searching for information about this, I came across the contents of the Lou Reed collection of the New York Public Library:

Reed saved many letters from his parents, as well as greeting cards from his Velvet Underground bandmate, Moe Tucker, who always addressed him as "honey bun." There is also a personalized astrological chart created for Reed by Billy Name, and a signed 1997 letter from Paul McCartney which accompanied an advance copy of his album, Flaming Pie. [...] Additionally, there is a selection of records Reed received as gifts, including a copy of the Byrds' Eight Miles High/Why that was sent to him by Jimmy Page

The Macca one is v.strange I can only assume Laurie made him keep it...

Pink Floyd dropped a bunch of live bootleg-quality recordings the other day, as noted on the dedicated Floyd thread. King Crimson have dropped a ton of studio sessions from the Islands album.